Of the three great Gods of the Hindu Trinity – Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Sustainer, and Shiva the Destroyer – I am a long-time devotee of the greatest of the three: Lord Shiva.
Shiva is the Supreme Destoyer of Evil. He makes the way for a new rebirth, always painful. In February I was privileged to take part in a Sivaratri celebration with Krishna Das at the Sivananda Yoga Ashram on Paradise Island in the Bahamas – an all-night vigil with chanting and a breakfast feast, the most important Shaivite ceremony of the year – a really powerful experience.
I was thinking yesterday that a mass extinction is a supreme act of Lord Shiva. We have become a very corrupt, decadent and destructive society and civilsation – our overall effect on the planet, and its global population and lifeforms, is pure evil right now. We need to die, and be reborn.
At the same time, I sense a curious movement in the Force. This world is full of angels and devils. As this crisis develops, I sense that the angels are rising up, and the devils are descending deeper, a parting of the ways. For me, it feels like an Ascension process, what some people call the Rapture. An ascending into a more heavenly, more ecstatic experience of life. I suspect it’s a common spiritual experience in End Times. It’s simply how we each react as we prepare to meet our Maker.
My beloved mother used to tell me that my views are too ‘apocalyptic’ – now I’m not so sure. đđ
Shiva is moreover the Lord of the Dance (Nataraja, as depicted here) and he is also worshipped in India as the God of Cannabis, which his devotees, like me, revere.
Om Shanti. Om Namah Shivaya.
